A deconstruction of Irfan Pathan's final over

After a slew of one-sided matches, the IPL finally had some close-finish matches again. Delhi-Deccan was competitive enough, but the battle of the Kings - the Kings XI Punjab against the Chennai Super Kings - provided for the most thrilling finish of IPL-3 yet.

Chennai will be kicking themselves for allowing the match to go into a super over after they had it sewn up and there for the taking for 90% of the match.

The temptation after a super-over finish is to analyze what happened in those two overs and how it could have impacted teams. However, a one-over shoot-out is an entirely hit or miss affair - and batsmen can't really be blamed if they lose wickets trying to go for the big one in that over.

However, the over that led to the match ending in a tie, was the last one of the Chennai innings, which was entrusted to Irfan Pathan to bowl.

Throughout the match, Chennai held the upper hand. At the start of that one over though, it was Punjab that had a slight advantage. Chennai were 6 wickets down, with Justin Kemp injured, which meant that No.9 was at the crease. Albie Morkel too had just come in and 10 runs were required. Moreover, Juan Theron had bowled a top-notch last but one over, in which he gave just 3 runs and Chennai were feeling pressure for the first time in the match.

This was Irfan Pathan's chance to show that he had not yet lost his bowling mojo, that he still had it in him to make a comeback as a bowler to the Indian team. He didn't quite grab the chance, though he did well enough in the end.

Ball 1 was an atrocious one. Slightly short, outside the off stump, to a reputed hitter in Albie Morkel. With just 10 needed, Irfan would have known that Albie was likely to throw his bat at anything that gave him even a bit of width. The ball duly flew off a thick edge to the third man boundary.

Ball 2 was even worse than Ball 1, with two byes being taken off what should have been a dot ball. Albie missed the ball and ran through for the bye, Sangakkara missed the stumps at the striker's end, but Irfan had no business missing the stumps at his end and missing the chance to run-out Morkel.

Ball 3 was much better - a fuller length that Albie could only take a single off.

The first half of the over had been decidedly poor, but Irfan came back well in the second half. Though Ashwin got 2 runs to level the scores off Ball 4, he was deceived by Irfan, and the runs came via a lucky leading edge.

Balls 5 and 6 though, were excellent. Keeping to a full length and a good line to a nervous Number 9, Irfan ensured that the scores remained tied, which eventually led to Punjab gaining their first two points.

However, it was instructive to note that Irfan bowled much better to the weaker batsman than to the more established one. In his Test career for India, Irfan has faced the same problem.

He has played 29 Test matches, taking 100 wickets for a decent - if not very good - bowling average of 32.26. However, further dissection of the numbers, reveal just why Irfan is currently out of the Indian side. Off his 29 Tests, he has played 4 Tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, in which he has taken 39 wickets at an incredible average of 11.56. In the other 25 Tests against the stronger Test nations he has taken 61 wickets at 45.49.

From being a bowler who can bat, Irfan has turned into a batsman who can bowl. His batting has always been good, and in this IPL, it has been very good. However, Punjab, Baroda and India, would, I suspect, be more benefited if the original Irfan - the one who burst onto the scene with prodigious swing - makes a re-appearance.